As part of the Rockefeller Foundation-Alliance for Pathogen Surveillance Innovations (RF-APSI) outreach in Bangalore, we designed the module for Dengue Warriors Awareness & Education program for Schools and teachers and carried out a mix of subject matter experts (SME) lectures and hands-on exhibits through interactive and engaging sessions on various days.

Coordinators: National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), Bengaluru Science and Technology Cluster (BeST)

Helping on ground awareness activities: ICA (Initiative for Climate Action) team/Echo Network team, TIGS team +NCBS team, Molecular Solutions Health Care (MSCH)-tentative, ARTPARK team, Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM) team representing National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES, IISc), National centre for vector borne diseases (NCBD), Karnataka State Natural disaster monitoring centre through the Dengue prediction/prevention program, under OneHealth banner and Forum Mall prestige group.

Permission Grantee and Implementer: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Bangalore local government.

Target Audience: Students from grades 5th to 10th from government, semi-govt and private schools (from the selected wards nominated by school, 2 per class) along with schoolteachers (up to ~50 per Day). By including various schools on the three days, we provided the training to upto 15 schools across various zones in Bangalore, with 90 nominated school students and

Objective: Collaborating with the ongoing BBMP’s School level dengue warrior program, this workshop aimed to train school students along with their teachers on Vector-borne diseases, epidemiology, identification of vectors and methods for source reduction and community involvement, via experiential learning for long-term impact and creating ambassadors, aligning with the National Education Policy.

Strategies:a series of awareness workshops, through a combination of engaging and immersive lectures, hands-on learning on identification of dengue-vectors, source reduction methods, use of technology for prevention (end July 2024 onward, covering a few of BBMP’s wards -government schools, batches of 40 students with 10 schoolteachers, 2.5hr module)

The Dengue Awareness Campaign is an initiative aimed at educating school students about dengue prevention, identification, and control. Covering about 15 schools through one-day programs on July 24 (NCBS campus), July 29 (Bangalore Creative Circus) and August 12 (Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technology Museum) , the program included interactive activities, expert lectures, and concluded with the "Dengue Warrior" award ceremony on Sept 12, 2024 led by BBMP to recognize outstanding students and schools participation. The final awards and felicitation ceremony was held at the BBMP town hall and was attended by 800 people, including students, teachers, ground health ASHA workers, health officers, health inspectors, program partners and BBMP health authorities. The awards were declared after a 5 month long social media campaign across Bangalore.

1. Program Module

11am-11:15am: Group interactions and introductions

11:15am-11:25am: Setting Context: Introduction and RF-APSI’s Dr. Sufia Sadaf |Dengue, mosquito-borne illnesses, tests, pathogen surveillance, precautions, community involvements: Dr. Bhaskar Rajakumar, ARTPARK

11:25am-12:00pm: Exhibits visit-TIGS (all about mosquitoes)-Dr. Sunita Swain and TIGS insectary team, ARTPARK, AI and disease prevention, reporting- ARTPARK team, NCBS team: Zoonoses game, Dengue board game: NCBS team

12:00pm-12:10pm: Ms. Udbhavi Balakrishna, Deccan Herald, use of journalism and social media in disease awareness (short talk)

12:10pm-12:35pm: Group Activity, experiential learning, use of extempore, quiz, Q & A and prizes (skit/poster/ settings to choose from: indoor vs outdoor setting, your community, further outreach), certificates. NCBS, TIGS volunteers, Vaishnavi Shridhar, Disha K Sai, Shivangi Tiwari, Shivani Verma, Mugdha Sabale, Mitali Patil, Yesu Raj, ICA and BCC: Ajay Raghavan, Siddhartha Lakshman, Jai Warrier| BeST Cluster: Sreeparna Samanta, Suresh K Mendem, ARTPARK: Nivedita, Harish, VITM: Jyoti Mehra and team.

12:35pm-12:45pm: Pledge

12:45pm-12:50pm: BBMP (2mins show video+ 3mins how can you help: Ongoing social media campaign on community projects to mitigate spread of dengue

12:50pm to 12:57pm: Interactive chatbot for breeding hotspot identification, The Echo Network, Aditya Parekh

1pm-2pm: Lunch and wrap-up

With this program series, the participants were encouraged to plan projects to implement dengue prevention measures in their community with their teachers and pledge to continue being the Dengue warriors and community ambassadors

1. Post-program follow-ups

The school community made efforts to monitor the implementation of dengue prevention measures.

Reports were received from schools on the impact of the awareness campaign and student activities.

Engagement with local communities to expand the reach of the Dengue Warrior Program.

This educational drive successfully created a ripple effect in the community, fostering a proactive approach to mitigate dengue spread and helped in identification of breeding hotspots for resource mobilization and increased disease surveillance.

Outreach lead:
Dr. Sufia Sadaf,
RF-APSI with ground partners

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Written by :-
Dr. Sufia Sadaf,
Program Manager,
Outreach & Science Communication,
NCBS-TIFR,
Bangalore